Chapter 23 Punishment/Happy Things

“Aunt Hu, Yu Jiao, there’s a saying, ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ Maybe Qian Xiaolan does like Lian Erlai.” Seeing that someone finally couldn’t hold back, Qian Xiaolan curled her lips and sneered, “Wu Zhiqing, there’s a saying, ‘A dirty mind sees everything as dirty.’ Just like you like Lian Erlai, you think I like him too. Actually, it’s not shameful to like someone. What’s shameful is that you can’t get someone’s love and try to harm others.” The entire crowd gasped. This news was too explosive! Wu Qiulan saw Lian Erlai’s excited expression on the platform.

 She suppressed the urge to vomit and loudly defended herself, “I don’t like him at all. What’s so likable about a little hoodlum like him? But you, Qian Xiaolan, are different. You grew up in the village. It’s normal for you to be fooled by a few words.” She was a high school graduate! It made her feel disgusted to even have Lian Erlai’s name mentioned in the same breath as hers. How could she possibly like him? Ridiculous! In a flash, she thought, maybe Qian Xiaolan had discovered that she liked Gu Yanqing, so she was deliberately trying to make her look bad.

 Before she could figure it out, Gu Yu Jiao suddenly shouted, “Sister Xiaolan, it’s her!” Hu Guifen immediately understood and asked, “Really? Are you sure?” Gu Yu Jiao nodded, “Although she lowered her voice yesterday, you can still tell if you listen carefully.” Wu Qiulan’s body stiffened. Panic flashed in her eyes, but she quickly masked it. Qian Xiaolan wasn’t surprised by the result. “I suspected it was her all along.” Gu Shengli and the other brigade officials now understood what the three of them meant. They immediately became alert.

 Gu Shengli looked at Lian Erlai with a grim face, “Who gave you the idea to sneak into Qian Xiaolan’s house last night?” Lian Erlai didn’t expect them to know this. He subconsciously glanced at Wu Qiulan. He met her warning gaze. Seeing this, Qian Xiaolan sneered, “Wu Zhiqing really likes Lian Erlai, doesn’t she? You like him so much that you don’t even care about the occasion and still flirt with him.” Wu Qiulan’s face turned black, “Qian Xiaolan, don’t ruin my reputation!” Qian Xiaolan calmly said, “How is that ruining your reputation? Just now, I saw with my own two eyes that you winked at Lian Erlai. Surely many others saw it too.”

As soon as Qian Xiaolan finished speaking, no one responded because everyone was looking at Wu Qiulan and Lian Erlai with strange expressions. Wu Qiulan’s face turned even uglier. She opened her mouth to retort, but Gu Shengli slammed the loudspeaker, interrupting her. He asked loudly, “Wu Zhiqing, if you weren’t flirting with Lian Erlai, then tell us why you winked at him?” “Village Chief, there’s no need to say anything. It’s clear that she’s done something wrong and is warning Lian Erlai.” “Oh, I thought Wu Zhiqing was the best among all the intellectuals.

I didn’t expect her to be so evil!” “Yeah, I thought she was good, but she’s even worse than the other intellectuals.” “Village Chief, we can’t keep this kind of person in our village. What if she corrupts others?” … Besides the villagers’ clamoring, some intellectuals also chimed in, “Wu Qiulan is inciting others to commit crimes. She should be sent to be reformed!” Everyone was yelling and directly found her guilty. Wu Qiulan was so angry that her eyes were red as she roared, “It’s not me. I didn’t do anything! You’re being unfair. I haven’t said anything yet. Why are you convicting me?” Gu Shengli started slapping the loudspeaker again.

Wu Huiji was in so much pain from the noise that she snatched the loudspeaker and shouted, “Wu Zhiqing, actually, Lian Erlai talked in his sleep last night and exposed you. His mother even handed us the five yuan you gave him. We’re holding this meeting today to make an example of him and give you a chance to admit your mistake. But you’ve been avoiding the issue.

 Don’t blame us for being impolite.” Hearing this, Lian Erlai looked at his mother, who was silently wiping tears in the crowd, in shock. Wu Qiulan’s eyes narrowed fiercely at Lian Erlai. What a useless piece of trash! He couldn’t even do anything right, but he could cause trouble!

The villagers looked at Wu Qiulan with even more disdain. What kind of hatred did she have? Why would she harm Qian Xiaolan like this? Qian Xiaolan’s eyes turned red. She rushed forward and slapped Wu Qiulan. “Slap” “I just didn’t agree to let you married intellectuals stay in my room, that’s all!” As soon as the slap landed, Wu Qiulan’s face instantly swelled up. She was about to fight back, but she was held back by Gu Yu Jiao and her friends.

“Slap” “I’m an unmarried girl. Is it wrong for me to refuse?” “Slap” “For something so trivial, you want to ruin me?” “Slap, slap, slap…” Qian Xiaolan slapped Wu Qiulan ten or so times.

 By the end, her face was bigger than a pig’s head. As soon as she stopped, the four married intellectuals rushed forward to explain, “Miss Qian, we didn’t ask Wu Qiulan to ask you for a room!” “Yeah, we didn’t even know about it.” … Qian Xiaolan nodded, indicating that she understood. They dispersed, feeling uneasy. They hated Wu Qiulan even more.

Her hypocrisy was already annoying enough, but she was actually using their names to do bad things in the village. It was disgusting! The chaotic drying yard made all the brigade officials look bad. Thinking of Qian Xiaolan’s promised donation, they decided to severely punish the culprit.

Thus, Wu Qiulan, with her swollen face, was brought to the platform to receive her punishment from the brigade, while enduring the condemning stares and rotten vegetables thrown at her. The brigade didn’t want to keep her anymore. They planned to report her to the Intellectual Youth Office and have her sent to an island to reclaim land. Lian Erlai would go with her, but if he behaved well, he could return after three months. As for Qian Changcai and Sun Honghua, the brigade decided to make them carry manure for seven days during the next rice fertilization. After announcing the punishments, Gu Shengli then talked about Qian Xiaolan’s decision to donate most of her money to the school. Immediately, everyone looked at her like she was an idiot.

Qian Xiaolan knew what they were thinking and appropriately showed a wry smile. Everyone instantly imagined a bunch of scenarios: “Orphan girl donates all her wealth to ensure safety,” “Shocking! Village bully and intellectual bully a weak orphan girl!” “Silence! Orphan girl has to fight against evil forces to protect herself!”…

After imagining all these scenarios, the villagers felt even more sympathy for Qian Xiaolan. What? They had complained about Qian Xiaolan being troublesome before? Impossible! They were all very compassionate and helpful comrades! After the meeting, Qian Xiaolan walked up to Wu Qiulan and whispered to her, “I’m really happy now, but it’s not good to be happy alone. I have something that can make you happy too.”

 Wu Qiulan looked at her with hateful eyes. Qian Xiaolan sneered and slowly uttered a sentence. Wu Qiulan’s face instantly turned pale with fear.